AXA buys $500m in LP interests from Mizuho – report

The French insurer will appoint 3i Group to manage the holdings, Bloomberg reported.

AXA has been particularly active in the secondaries market. In August, it was reported that the firm had raised $3 billion for AXA Secondary Fund V, having set a target of $3.5 billion and a hard cap of $4 billion.

It had bought more than $5 billion in portfolios from banks in the 18 months to mid-August as lenders divested non-core assets to comply with the Volcker Rule, which limits investments made with banks' own capital, as well as increased capital requirements that come with Basel III. AXA estimated last month that banks may sell funds valued at as much as $50 billion.

It acquired a $740 million portfolio of private equity interests from Barclays and $1.7 billion from Citi in June. Last year it scooped up portfolios from Bank of America and Natixis worth $1.9 billion and $718 million, respectively. AXA followed up in late August with the acquisition of a EUR620 million ($901 million) private equity portfolio from Germany's HSH Nordbank in conjunction with LGT Capital Partners. AXA's take included 18 different limited partnerships focused on European buyout funds, EUR478 million in original commitments.

However, it has also been reported that AXA Private Equity will be put up for sale by its parent, which is keen to focus on its core insurance business.

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• Topics
• Secondaries
• North Asia
• AXA Private Equity Asia
• Japan
• Secondaries
• buyout
• Europe